Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 19, 2010 5:21 pm We recently purchase a block (17.3m x 48m), we been to numerous display house and looked through 100's of house plans, and found nothing which turn us on. We decided to buy a large block to build our so call future and last home, instead of buying other peoples problems and having to renovate the house and joggling work and 4 kids. We intend to build a single storey house with 5 bedrooms 2 bath 3 toilet, kids activity/lounge, common area - kitchen family and dinning, home theatre doubling up as guest room. We like to know what is the most cost effictive way to make our dream come true without having to work 24/7 and take on 2 more full time employment to fund for our house. Some options were to get a drafter to draft a design, than independantly get quotes (which may exceed the budget, as drafter may not know pricing) or engage a building broker who will do the lot but if at any stage we disagree but love the design may pay through the nose or speak to a large project builder as their buying power is greater? Would appreciate your feed back. Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 2Oct 19, 2010 6:00 pm project home builders have great prices (and good packages) as they are competive with the other buidlers on the market. Most of them can amend plans to suit your needs and blocks, so if you don't like something the way it is they can change it. Like if you like a house but hate that the main bedroom is at the front of the house, hate that the kitchen is in the corner, and that the family room is too narrow - they could swap/enlarge/reduce all these around to suit your needs. We wanted a back upstairs rumpus to take in our views and most of the homes had upstairs front rumpus's, our builder went through heaps of designs with us on how they could amend it to suit our needs. They would reverse the main bedroom and rumpus and move the kids rooms around. As long as you don't adjust the 'structure' it's not expensive at all. We wanted a 'guests' accommodation in our house that was external to our house and so our builder added it on the side of our house but made it look like it fits in with the rest of thehouse. There is a couple that are building the house that we are building in a few suburbs away and the house looks COMPLETELY different!!! You wouldn't even think its the same huose (inside and out). We have a rumpus that comes off our kitchen towards the backyard and our kitchen island bench faces towards the meals area and family rooms. The other couple put a rumpus off the front living room and they changed their whole kitchen (they removed their WIP, why you would do that I have no idea?) and they flipped their island around so it faces towards their backyard (or where our rumpus would be). So if you find a house that you kinds like, get the builder to amend it to how you want it. They will be flexible for a sale! Hope that helps. [i][b]Krissy & Dave Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 3Oct 19, 2010 9:51 pm Hi Thanks for your feedback, unfortunately inorder for us to achive what we like with regards to solar passive we need to alter the structure therefore finding a plan and altering the internal layout would not be viable. So the question lays under to go with a drafter to design and having the copy rights to the design and than get quotes from a project/concept builder or tender the project out and see who come in the cheapest or to get a building broker who will design and do the entire process but must pay more for copy right of the design should we not go with them. Thanks for your responses. Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 4Oct 19, 2010 9:57 pm Hi - not sure where you are located but if you want to have an amazing design without the artitech $$$, you can use Home Designers. We consulted with one and there homes and ideas were amazing, they were quoting at aroun $1200 p/sqmtr. Althought at the time we were going to have to pay for the designs and then pay the builder, and we a young family so going with a builder worked better for us on $$$. I now understand they have joined with builders so they can offer 1 fee for building the house. Anyway, that company was called The Design Mill. Highly rated!! We are in WA, but there might be similar style of business' elsewhere. The designs were around $10k outright. Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 5Oct 19, 2010 10:25 pm Hi Sheznay Thanks for your reply, We too in WA, will be under the city of Melville. The design mill website looks really bling and sure they would draw some really awesome design. Will make contact with them and see what they say. Is $1200 just to build? will it be single or double story. We too have a young family but 4 kids, so we too intend to go with a builder. what stage of building process are you at? are you just starting the planning and drawing stage or have you finish construction if so how long did the process take? Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 6Oct 20, 2010 10:13 am We are building in COM too! She said her 2 stories were closer to $1500. I think the $1200 was pretty much everything except floorings and air con, as far as I knew. She was completly different to deal with, she asks a lot of questions about how you use spaces, like she asked whether we needed room in the laundry for a dog bed, school bags, keys, etc. Where the light is coming from. She used 3 different builders, one of them was trademark and I can't remember the other 2. We only signed about a month ago, we are doing a demolish and build so we are having the survey done this week and then the plans will be drawn. Fingers crossed for a Feb Slab. We have pretty much decided on our tiles etc, it's a bit easy because I am stealing interior colours from another lifestyle display. Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 7Oct 20, 2010 10:22 am Have you looked at the forrester by burbank? thats what we are building and have many options to use. We have added things such as a 5th bedroom (as we have 4 kids as well) Pantry under stairs, laundry chute.... there are many options. the forrester is also 7 star rating. Good luch in your choice, and make sure you fill us in on your progress. Forrester 43sq We have our keys (3/6/11) Now it's time to decorate (that's the fun part.lol) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37598 Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 8Oct 21, 2010 9:45 pm Hi sheznay, It much easier when you see something you like from another house and can be easily copy to your house. Good for you.. What is the lasy's name you spoke to at The Design Mill? Hello Rudolf1980, Thanks for your feedback, i took a look at Burbank homes, their display home is in Victoria, shame i am in WA, but will look at house plans for ideas. thanks again Hi alyssa2010, thanks for your tip, we have had a list of what we want and i cant call it a list more like a short story now. Thanks again. Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 9Oct 21, 2010 10:43 pm Hi - the lady at Design Mill was Julie - I think she is the boss. She is great. Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 10Nov 13, 2010 6:27 pm Hi 1st timer - i'm actually a building broker myself so take this advice as you please. If you're looking for a standard home design then value for money in the single storey market under $250k will be going directly through a big builder and making little to no changes to the home design. If you can't find something that works then your choices are to; 1. Get your own home drawn up and be your own building broker. That means getting a good designer (there are a lot of poor ones out there), audit the builders, review all the tender submissions, keep the builders doing the right thing during the build process etc etc.. 2. Go directly through a builder of your choice and let them do a design. Atleast you should get something decent, but you'll probably pay a premium of around 5% extra for the privilege. 3. Go to an architect and pay astronomical fees and FWIWIMHO get a very average home design. In 20 years of home building i've only ever seen 1 home design by an architect that was any good. I can tell you a dozen horror stories though right off the top of my head. 4. Find a good building broker - there's 1 in particular i'd recommend against because of all the re-work i've had to do for their past unhappy clients, but there are a few good ones in Perth - including myself of course! - and let them do the work for you. Even with our sales fee (which is less than most sales reps earn who work directly for a builder) you'll typically save more than if you go directly to a builder. Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 11Nov 13, 2010 8:25 pm 1st timer, my advice to you is the following, 1. Slow the pre-contract process down, it’s not a race. 2. Only sign when you understand everything. 3. Only sign when you have the plan you are happy with. 4. Only sign when you have all the cost clearly displayed with no “known” undisclosed costs. 5. Look at lots of plans but discuss the plan with peers, this forum, friends and not the sales person, until you are close to the final plan. 6. Employ a drafting office or heaven forbid an architect. Review the designer’s portfolio to ensure they design the same language you desire. 7. Get a number of tender prices ensuring you have the exact same discussion and information with each. 8. Ensure the plan works for your family, has great orientation, captures the views and breeze. 9. Design within your budget other wise you will hate the cutting of your dream. 10. Read, read, read and look, look, look 10. Enjoy the process. Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 12Nov 13, 2010 8:33 pm YBBroker, can you tell us a little bit about your industry. Is there an upfront fee for your services, is it a percentage, or is it free. How much control does the owner have, do they have direct contact with the designer, is there a time line that is to be followed. What contract does the owner sign with you. What happen if they change their mind and decide not to build pre-contract with the builder. Re: Any tips for a 1st timer 14Nov 15, 2010 11:24 am [quote="YBBroker"]Hi 1st timer - i'm actually a building broker myself so take this advice as you please. If you're looking for a standard home design then value for money in the single storey market under $250k will be going directly through a big builder and making little to no changes to the home design. I think you can still get value for money by changing the big builders home design. If you work off a price of $1000 per sq mtre then you can estimate what is value for money... For instance we added 8sqmtrs to our games room and only paid $6k. That represents good value. We almost went through a building broker but decided we didn't know enough about contracts to feel secure. Also The building broker gets paid by the builder so their loyalty has to lie somewhere. You only have to search on here to find a lot of nightmare stories about smaller builders going bankrupt etc. IMO,I would rather put my money with a larger company. What is the price for peace of mind?? (gawd that sounds like an ad ) The advice about hiring a Handover company is gold. My cousin runs a construction company, might ask for a favour. Building with Life$tyle Homes in Perth SOR Key Dates on First Page of my Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=38761 Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. They are trying to charge us interest on late… 7 14280 Hi there, We’ve recently had plans approved to add a 1st storey addition to our existing house for a growing family in Sydney. With the current cost of building… 0 4306 Just be careful with building stability during construction, that is when the structure may be weakened, refer to your engineering drawings for stability methodology. 1 7231 |